Winter Series Race #3

By millbridge

SALISBURY, N.C. — Carson Kvapil capped off his 2017 season with a flourish Saturday afternoon at Millbridge Speedway, capturing the Open division feature win during the third race of the sixth-mile’s annual Winter Series.

Kvapil started from the pole in the 15-lap main event and never trailed, racing away to a 4.485 second victory over fellow teenager Joey Robinson.

The victory marked Kvapil’s 12th Millbridge win of the year and his eighth in the premier Open class.

“Our car was really good today,” Kvapil said after climbing from his kart. “This is a great way to end the season, and I can’t thank CorvetteParts.net, Keen Parts and all our supporters for what they do for us all year long.”

In other racing, Matt Brellsford replicated Kvapil’s performance in the 15-lap Mini Cup feature, dominating the field and pulling away to a five-second win over Brett Suggs.

Daniel Durham completed the podium in third.

Despite consistent pressure from Tyler Letarte, Caden Kvapil made it a family sweep of the top two outlaw kart classes, leading all 20 laps from the pole to notch the win by .678 of a second over Letarte.

Brent Crews rallied back from a spin on lap nine, which drew the only caution flag of the 20-lap run, to finish third ahead of Robinson and Ben Studer.

The most entertaining race of the day was the 20-lap Box Stock main event, in which Matt Francis fought off a spirited drive from Aiden Turner to capture the victory in a thrilling finish.

Turner started from the pole with Francis to his right flank, leading the first two laps despite an early five-car melee in turns one and two that illuminated the yellow lights on the opening round.

Francis finally powered inside to take the lead down the backstretch on lap three, holding steady out front until a caution at halfway for a spinning Jonathan Shafer slowed the pace again and restacked the field, giving Turner a chance to regroup and attempt to pounce.

None of Turner’s advances would work however, despite another yellow with two to go that set up a green-white-checkered finish.

That incident allowed Hunter Kohn to surge to second with a last-lap, last-turn pass of Turner, while Francis scooted home to the win by .433 of a second.

Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network, as well as a periodic contributor to SPEED SPORT Magazine.

Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.

The 23-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.

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About Millbridge Speedway

Millbridge Speedway has been in existence for over 25 years. The Burnett’s took over the speedway in 2011 to transform it into a premier outlaw kart track. Over the years we have added banking, built new walls, put up new lights, and made numerous changes to the speedway to make it one of the best outlaw kart tracks in the country. Millbridge Speedway has been featured on National TV multiple times over the past few years ... Read More